The present invention relates to an emergency reporting apparatus for a vehicle that reports an accident or the like happened to the vehicle to a predetermined emergency report receiving center.
Conventional emergency reporting apparatuses for vehicles report accidents or the like happened to the vehicles to emergency report receiving centers using emergency report transmitting means, such as car phones, preinstalled in the vehicles or using transportable emergency report transmitting means, such as mobile telephones, connected to the vehicles.
FIG. 11 shows a system construction of a conventional emergency reporting apparatus for a vehicle that is, for instance, the same as that disclosed in JP-A-2000-49975.
In FIG. 11, reference numeral 1 denotes an emergency reporting terminal mounted on a vehicle, numeral 2 an emergency report transmitting means, numeral 3 an antenna, and numeral 4 a vehicle starting device, with the emergency reporting terminal 1 being provided with an emergency report issuing button 5, a control unit 6, a gyro sensor 7, a positional information obtaining and processing unit 8, a storage unit 9, a GPS antenna 10, and a GPS receiver 11.
When a user brings a mobile telephone or the like into a vehicle although another emergency report transmitting means is preinstalled in the vehicle, this results in an uneconomical situation where the user possesses a plurality of emergency report transmitting means.
Further, when a mobile telephone or the like needs to be connected to a vehicle as a transportable emergency report transmitting means, there may be a case where a user does not carry the emergency report transmitting means and therefore an emergency report cannot be transmitted when an accident actually happens. Further, in the case of a transportable emergency report transmitting means, a user is bothered by the necessity to connect a mobile telephone or the like to a predetermined part of a vehicle each time he/she gets into the vehicle.
Further, because it is not specified who rides in a vehicle, medical information about the occupant is not necessarily correctly and swiftly conveyed when an accident happens. This causes a hindrance to urgent medical support.
The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an emergency reporting apparatus for a vehicle that, when an accident happens to the vehicle, reports the accident to a predetermined receiving center. The emergency reporting apparatus of the present invention necessarily exists in the vehicle when a passenger rides in the vehicle and when an accident happens. The emergency reporting apparatus of the present invention also makes it possible to transmit an emergency report without requiring the passenger to perform a troublesome operation such as the connection to a predetermined part when he/she gets into the vehicle.
An object of the present invention is also to provide an emergency reporting apparatus for a vehicle that allows medical support to be provided without delay by specifying each occupant.
In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided an emergency reporting apparatus for a vehicle comprising: a vehicle-mounted terminal that is mounted on the vehicle, includes an accident detecting means for detecting an accident happened to the vehicle and a communicating means for sending information concerning the accident when the accident detecting means detects the accident, and sends the accident information; and a portable terminal that is a mobile telephone, includes a door open/close control means for unlocking or locking a door of the vehicle and a communicating means for communicating with the communicating means of the vehicle-mounted terminal, and transmits the accident information sent from the vehicle-mounted terminal to a preset transmission destination.
Also, the door open/close control means of the portable terminal includes a communicating means and unlocks or locks the vehicle door by operating a door unlocking/locking means mounted on the vehicle.
Further, the door open/close control means of the portable terminal sends a door unlocking signal or a door locking signal to the vehicle-mounted terminal via the communicating means provided in the portable terminal in order to unlock or lock the vehicle door by operating a door unlocking/locking means mounted on the vehicle via the vehicle-mounted terminal.
Furthermore, the portable terminal includes a position detecting means and transmits the accident information, to which positional information has been added by the transmitting means, to the preset transmission destination.
Still further, when detecting a shortage of remaining charge in a battery, the portable terminal informs the vehicle-mounted terminal of the shortage of the remaining charge in the battery using the communicating means, and the vehicle-mounted terminal notifies a user of the shortage of the remaining charge in the battery using an information notifying means mounted on the vehicle.
Yet still further, the vehicle-mounted terminal communicates with the portable terminal using the communicating means at predetermined time intervals and, when the communication becomes impossible, notifies a user that it becomes impossible to transmit an emergency report, the notification being made using an information notifying means mounted on the vehicle.
Further, the portable terminal includes a door unlocking button for unlocking the vehicle door and a door locking button for locking the vehicle door.
Furthermore, the portable terminal includes a door unlocking/locking button for unlocking and locking the vehicle door.
Still further, the portable terminal includes a door unlocking and conversation starting off hook button for unlocking the vehicle door and starting a telephone conversation and a door locking and conversation ending on hook button for locking the vehicle door and ending the telephone conversation.
Yet still further, the portable terminal includes an information notifying means, the vehicle-mounted terminal informs the portable terminal whether the door is in an unlocked state or a locked state using the communicating means, and the portable terminal notifies a user of whether the door is in an unlocked state or a locked state using the information notifying means.
Furthermore, the vehicle-mounted terminal prestores identification information identifying a person and controls one of unlocking and locking of the door, ignition of an engine, and start of the vehicle by comparing the identification information with information sent from the portable terminal via the communicating means.
In addition, the portable terminal includes a person identifying means for identifying a person and, when an accident happens, transmits identification information concerning the person to the transmission destination.
Finally, the vehicle-mounted terminal stores personal identification information that concerns each occupant other than a driver and is inputted when the occupant gets into the vehicle and, when an accident happens, transmits a number of people riding in the vehicle and the personal identification information concerning each occupant to the transmission destination via the portable terminal.